Tron: Legacy managed to avoid being de-rezzed its first weekend out, coming in safely at number one, while Yogi Bear came in at respectable number two. But pity poor Reese Witherspoon whose latest foray into Rom-Comdom bombed at number eight. Your weekend receipts are here.
In the yesteryears, a controversy had to really work up a head of steam to make the papers and the magazines, slowly gathering strength until it erupted into a full-bore gossip hurricane. But nowadays, all it takes is an errant tweet and every Blog, Dick and Harry is up in arms. Sometimes the outrage is merited, as in the case of Mel Gibson's (alleged!) vile phone calls. But other times, it's simply a lot of sound and fury ultimately signifying nothing. Join us for the Top Seven Most Ridiculous Controversies 2010
May 2010 go down as the year that movie stars stopped being polite and started getting real. Shia LeBeouf led the charge, saying he recognized how let down everyone was by the last Indiana Jones chapter. Then Mark Wahlberg admitted that the "f*cking trees, man" of The Happening were horrible. And as we noted, Sentient Pile of Pudding Sam Worthington has joined the truth brigade and tells us, yup, Clash of the Titans was absolute crap.
Tron: Legacy took the top spot at the box office this Friday, pulling in a cool $18 million from people wanting to see Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund gad about in skintight scuba suits. Yogi Bear established itself as this holiday season's annoying movie to take your annoying kids to, coming in at number two, while The Fighter opened wide at a respectable third place. But people stayed far, far away from Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon's How Do You Know, which only brought in an anemic $2.9 million. Your Friday box office is here.
Whaaaa? You're still here? Come on, let's skedaddle into the weekend -- starting with all the linky splendor better known as Movieline's Week in Review. What's the worst that can happen? (Hint: Watch out for bow-tied ursine sidekick bearing rifles.) Let us reconvene on the morrow with the mellow stylings of weekend editor Dixon Gaines. Cheers!
And he didn't do it on Twitter. "His choice of words bothered me," The Young and The Restless star said to EW.com about Neil Patrick Harris' Twitter slur. "It seems to me like a young whippersnapper, having seen himself on a few covers, who's received a few awards, is now suddenly suffering from the first signs of hubris. I've been in the business for 50 years. I've seen people come and go and I'm still here." For his part, Braeden says he only dropped out of How I Met Your Mother because of his busy schedule following hip surgery. "Everyone knows that I'm exhausted. I was not about to appear on a show for two lines." There are no small parts... [EW]
· Yes, that is singer/songwriter John Mayer behind two guests smooching inside a photo booth at the holiday party for IAC, the internet company that owns CollegeHumor and Match.com. No one has any idea why Mayer was at the event...but he could very well be headed to a holiday party near you. [ONTD]
It's Friday folks, and that means this: "EXCLUSIVE: Oscar Nominee James Caan to Voice Animated Chili Pepper in Web Series." Oh, really, Internet? But is this bit of exclusive news real, or just some end-of-week comedy shenanigans from The Onion. Click ahead for your answer.
This just in from the world of charity: Kevin Smith just completed an auction on Twitter (Twauction? Twarity?), selling the debut rights for his latest Red State poster for $1,700. Great job! Big ups to the magnanimous winner, whose name, alas, I can't reprint on our homepage. Read on for the NSFW details.
How Do You Know, the new James L. Brooks movie that's about, well, something, I suppose, is not very good. The title, presented in the form of a question (sort of), offers no clue to the merits of the film let alone hints to what the plot of this movie might be about. Honestly, after seeing this movie, I'm still not 100 percent sure what it's actually about. With that in mind, I did my best to come up with 10 questions, Jeopardy! style, based on the title of the film, to offer some clarity to this pressing issue of our time.
· With delight! The Oscar co-host invited the choir from PS 22 in Staten Island to sing at the Oscars, and they were positively beside themselves with excitement. Hey, getting named checked by Oprah is one thing, being on the Oscars is...well, probably not as cool. Still, free trip to Hollywood! Click ahead to see the invite and stick around for more Buzz Break.
That would be The Young & The Restless' Eric Braeden. "Eric Braeden is a D-Bag," wrote Harris on Twitter. "[T]he actor (Robin's dad), agreed to a cameo, then last night bailed, saying the part wasn't 'substantial' enough." Braeden played Robin Scherbatsky, Sr. on an episode of How I Met Your Mother in 2008. Don't be too crestfallen HIMYM fans; Harris tweeted immediately afterward that the show cast Ray Wise as his replacement, "[a] fantastic actor who makes any part 'substantial'. Super excited to welcome him to the family!" [@ActuallyNPH]
You can have your top 10 movies and other reflections on the year in culture. I'll stick with an even more demonstrative metric of Hollywood at its best (and worst): Marketing. Some is inspired, some not so much. And some is inspired in all the wrong ways. With this in mind, join me for a leisurely stroll through some of 2010's best, worst, weirdest and wildest attempts at studios peddling their wares.
Normally, Movieline reserves this feature for the dreck populating movie theaters during the warm summer months. If Hollywood has taught us anything, however, it's that bad movies can get released into the wild at any time. With that in mind, let's take a look at what the critics are saying about Yogi Bear, the dreck-iest of the dreck-y in theaters this weekend. Enjoy?
Not to be outdone by the Golden Globes, SAG and pretty much every single critics group this side of San Diego, Roger Ebert has placed The Social Network and The King's Speech atop his ten-best list for 2010. "All of the personalities and values in The King's Speech are traditional [...] The characters project considered ideas of themselves; The Social Network, in contrast, intimately lays its characters bare. From one man speaking at a distance through the radio, to another man shepherding hundreds of millions through a software program, the two films show technology shaping human nature." Wonder if these two have what it takes to be Oscar nominees. (Kidding!) [Roger Ebert's Journal]
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